“Sometimes, people lose sight of the best part of being a baseball player,” Jeff Suppan said Friday. "Playing.”

Which explains why the 37-year-old veteran of 13-plus major league seasons is in the Padres' camp this spring.

Suppan has been given little chance of making the starting rotation out of spring training. There is a good chance that the right-hander could spend the entire season at Triple-A Tucson as younger, less experienced pitchers are promoted over him.

But the winner of 138 major league games eagerly awaits the chance to complete a second decade as a professional baseball player.

“When I signed my first contract, I set three goals for myself,” said Suppan.

“One, make the major leagues.”

Check.

“Two, play 13 seasons in the major leagues.”

Check.

“Three, play as long as I can play.”

Suppan is not ready to close the book on that one yet.

“I still feel I can pitch,” said Suppan, who is facing a second straight season at the Triple-A level after spending 13 straight seasons in the major leagues.

Suppan last year had an 11-8 record with a 4.78 ERA in 27 starts with Kansas City’s Omaha affiliate in the Pacific Coast League. But he never spent a day in the American League with the Royals.

Fulfilling?

“There were a lot of things that were gratifying about last season,” said Suppan. “There is an aspect of baseball that is analytical, but part of it is just playing.

“There is a pure enjoyment to pitching, the pitcher against the hitter. On the mound, that same feeling is still there for me.”

Not that Suppan wants to pitch in Tucson.

“My goal is to win a job here,” said Suppan. “I believe I can still pitch in the major leagues. But I have to be realistic.”

Suppan offers the end of the 2010 season as proof he can still pitch. Battling back from back and groin strains, Suppan posted a 3.84 ERA in 15 games (13 starts) with St. Louis over the second half of that season.

“St. Louis was a sign to me that I could still execute,” said Suppan, who had been released earlier in the 2010 season by Milwaukee. “I’d gotten into some bad habits, but then it came back together. I felt I came a long way in St. Louis.

“You never know what’s around the corner.”

Which might explain why a pitcher who has made more than $50 million in his career would accept a minor league contract from the Padres worth less than 20 percent of the major league minimum.

The Padres signed Suppan both as insurance and as a veteran influence at Tucson, where the majority of the rotation will never before have pitched above the Double-A level.

When asked if he saw himself as a mentor if he opened the season at Tucson, Suppan said: “First and foremost, I’m a pitcher. I am there to compete. Second, I’m a teammate. I think mentoring is part of being a good teammate. I’ve got a lot of experience. I’ve always been happy to share that.”

For how much longer?

“Staying in the present has always helped me work into the future,” said Suppan. “Next year is too far in the future to think about. The best thing I have going for me in this is my wife (Dana).

“She knows how much I love what I’m doing, even if it means being on the road six months a year.”

Bad timing

“It’s good for the game, but we should have had this rule five years ago,” Padres manager Bud Black said Friday after Major League Baseball announced adding a second wildcard team to the post-season playoffs starting with this season.

The Padres would have qualified as the National League’s second wild card team in both 2007 and 2010.

“The second wildcard puts a bigger premium on winning the division,” said Black.

Padres notes

--High winds in the Phoenix area affected some of the Padres drills Friday morning. “That was interesting,” third baseman Chase Headley said after a pop-up drill in 40-mph gusts.

--With a split-squad game Wednesday giving his pitchers extra opportunities, Black decided there was no need for an intrasquad game before Sunday’s exhibition opener. The Padres on Friday worked on defensive drills and signs.